Avamar Axion Version 3.0

Backup hardware

Bronze Award:

Quantum PX500 Series tape libraries

To add capacity to a tape library, you often have to put together a new frame. With Quantum Corp.'s PX500 Series tape libraries, all that's required to add capacity is to slide new boxes in. No cabling is needed because the new PX Series tape libraries use infrared connections between modules, very similar to the signal a television remote control emits. Boxes from each of the three classes of PX500s libraries can be stacked with the others, and the entire system will appear to management software as one unit. No other tape library vendor is making frames so easy to stack.

Put another way, the PX500 Series "is attractive because you can start really small and get really, really big," said one judge. "You won't need a crane to add things in."

The PX502, which is the smallest of the three tape libraries, is a 4U box with one or two drives. It holds either 32 DLT or 38 LTO tape cartridges, and can mix media. Next up in size is the PX506, which can hold 88 DLT or 100 LTO cartridges. The PX510 goes up to 40U, and can hold 22 drives and 220 cartridges.